SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In an effort to help demystify high-definition entertainment for consumers, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced its support for Blu-ray as the digital format of choice for customers. As part of this announcement, Amazon.com will more prominently promote Blu-ray hardware and software products on its website.

“The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions,” said Peter Faricy, vice president of movies and music at Amazon.com. “Our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray titles have increased from just over half of our high-definition sales to over three-quarters of our high-definition sales since early January. In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest Selection’ of Blu-ray products.”

Amazon.com currently carries a wide array of Blu-ray hardware and software products including players, Blu-ray discs, and the Sony PlayStation 3. For the hundreds of thousands of HD DVD owners who may still wish to purchase products for that format, Amazon will continue to carry a wide assortment of HD DVD products, including the broadest selection of HD DVD movie titles.

Blu-Ray wins the format war

Press release: Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO (February 19, 2008) -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

What to choose?

Though the numbers of good quality Blu-ray players available on the market today are many, there are a couple that simply stand out from the rest and thus can safely head any list for top rated blue ray player. Thus, without having to read everything that there is written about Blu-ray players, you should simply only consider the Sony Playstation 3 as well the Pioneer BDP-HD1 as being worthy contenders for the title of top rated blue ray player.

Sony Has A Better Reputation

However, even between these two contenders, the Sony Playstation enjoys a better reputation and is thus sure to win the honor of being called top rated blue ray player because of its excellent quality and also because at a price of between five hundred and six hundred dollars, is good value for money and it is also very easy to use and a good quality player to boot.

Though the Sony Playstation 3 has won numerous accolades that entitles it to be called the top rated blue ray player, the other contender which is the Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1 also has been voted top rated blue ray player though only for the excellent quality of its picture output, and so for those who do not have any issues with spending money, and whose main concern is the excellence in picture quality, then the Pioneer Elite may be a better choice and thus more worthy of being named top rated blue ray player.

It thus depends on what our main goal in owning a Blu-ray player is and for those who need the best in video performance, then the Pioneer Elite is the better product and though it does have several pluses and a few minuses as well, when you consider what you are getting when watching movies with this top rated blue ray player, you would not want to settle for anything else.

However, the general consensus seems to be that overall the Sony Playstation 3 is the one that should be known as the top rated blue ray player because of its value for money and with the recent announcement from Sony that it is planning on bringing out still cheaper Blu-ray players, it would be worth waiting till these offerings hit the market, which will certainly make the choice of selecting top rated blue ray player a little bit easier. If you go solely by how inexpensive is the Blu-ray player then the offerings from Sony will certainly steal a march over those offered by companies such as Samsung?